Sunhawk's Challenge
by Sunhawk1
Summary: A little prologue/introduction and a little challenge... let me know what you think.


A CHALLENGE  
  
A man stepped out of the shadows under a tree and walked over to the old (one could easily say ancient) well and peered inside. He had waited until everyone had gone before coming out. Not because his was plotting some sort of mischief (he was more of the type to deck someone rather than the type to hold grudges and plot long and complicated schemes of revenge). And he wasn't afraid, precisely. He was smart enough to know he should be cautious around such beings as frequented this particular spot, but didn't fear them... quite. He felt that he hadn't done anything to tick any of them off, and indeed doubted if any of them were particularly aware of his existance.  
  
A small black cat perched in the branches of the tree gave a small sneeze before going back to watching the scene at hand.  
  
He was of vaguely caucasoid appearance, with golden eyes and a white streak (usually signifying a severe head injury or trauma, which was very much correct) shot through the left side of his medium brown hair, which came down to the middle of his neck. He was powerfully built, clearly a warrior, and moved with a lightness that one only expects from ballerinas and people trying to make off with your brand new DVD player.  
  
His name, translated into english (a language that he predated the origins of), meant "Bird of Prey Belonging to the Unconquered Sun". It wasn't the name he was born with, but one he chose upon his Second Breath aeons ago. Mostly, he went by 'Sunhawk', as it meant much the same thing, as was shorter and less awkward to say.  
  
In the distant past, long before current recorded history, humanity had lived in a (relatively) golden age. What "forces of evil" had existed at that time had been driven back by the Exalted, chosed warriors of the Unconquered Sun, the other gods, and the Dragons.  
  
However, evil, as they say, never really dies, and the powerful civilization began to go the same road as the Roman Empire would, millenia later. Decadence became all the vogue, and there was no external threat to whip them into shape.  
  
A small group of the chosen of the gods, called the 'Sidereal Exalted' because they were chosen and marked by the planets, decided to do something, anything, to halt the seemingly inevitable collapse into chaos and darkness. They were the best of all of the Exalted at foreseeing and precognition, and so they all gathered to cast a great scrying to foresee the possibilities.  
  
The first was to merely do nothing. That road led to darkness quite quickly. The second was to work concertedly to prevent the disaster ahead. There the road was slightly slower, and with a very (extremely) small chance of success. The third was to launch an internal revolution designed to (rather cold-heartedly) slaughter the reigning caste (the Solar Exalted, chosen by the Unconquered Sun) and their consorts and companions, the Lunar Exalted (chosen by the moon). There, by using the Dragon-Blooded, the Terrestrial Exalted and the least powerful of the chosen, they might halt the dangerous decline. The decision split the council into the Gold Faction and the Bronze (for a world without the gold of the solars) Faction, the latter of which was more numerous.  
  
To make a long story short, the Bronze faction succeeded. For centuries on end they hunted down and killed the Solars as they were reborn. Eventually, though, more and more started to appear, and their efforts were undone. However, only a few short centuries later, fewer and fewer Celestial (Sidereal, Solar, Lunar) Exalted were reborn, and fewer and fewer Terrestrials were born of Terrestrial parents. Eventually, the few remaining went into seclusion, and the stories turned into myths and faerie tales.  
  
Sunhawk hadn't been reborn after that day long ago when the Sidereal took the path of blood. Instead, he was of perhaps four or five (and the only of the Dawn Caste, the warriors of the Exalted) who escaped somehow. He had wondered the centuries and millenia in disguise and hiding. Later, as the rest of the Exalted started to vanish, he had come across a fragment of a manuscript written by an arcane researcher, detailing the formation of a gate "between realities". He had studied it, and, tired of a mundane world without others of his kind, had used it.  
  
After perhaps a decade of "hopping," he came across this place, which seemed to lie curiously central to most other dimensions (although it, too, had variations and doublings).  
  
The residents called it "Heaven," and who was to say it wasn't?  
  
Shortly after he had first arrived, unobtrusively, he had learned much of this place, mostly gossip. At the time, much of the current gossip dealt with some sort of Bet between several deities and other beings that lived here, involving the hypothetical alteration of certain realities towards a certain purpose. The prize was to see your vision/alteration become real, and there was a lot of talk about it.  
  
He had been vastly curious about it, and wished he had been there to see; he only had the stories and written accounts to guide him, and it wasn't enough. Besides, he thought this could be an interesting introduction.  
  
  
He pulled away from the well, called Mimir's Well, after a deity of wisdom (or perhaps belonging to him... who knew, really?). Kneeling, he placed both hands on the ground, and softly spoke with it in an ancient tongue, asking it to support the energies he needed. As he rose upward, keeping eyes closed and his hands level, a mark on his forehead, appearing to be a solar circle with rays in all directions, burned with a fierce golden glow. As his chanting reached a crescendo, a blazing aura in the shape of a chinese dragon coiled around him, illuminating the surroundings, bare of anything living except the trees and a rather amused small black cat.  
  
As he opened his eyes, he took a depp breath and examined his handiwork. Nodding in satisfaction, he left, humming a small tune as he went. Behind him, a wooden-appearing sign with golden glowing lettering and scrollwork stood beside Mimir's Well. It read, simply:  
  
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| |  
| A Challenge for those who are interested: |  
| Recently, there was a Bet involving alterations to the life of one mortal, named Ranma |  
| Saotome. This challenge could be seen as similar, and is as follows: Switch Ranma Saotome, |  
| or one of those commonly associated with him, with another mortal from another universe "at |  
| birth," and follow the life of one or both of them. Paired entries submitted by two separate |  
| entities, one of each which | follows the life of one of the two switched people, are very |  
| much welcomed and suggested, although not required. I can offer no prize as such, but I'm |  
| sure that the excitement and competition would be... interesting. Best of luck! |  
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It was signed with only a simple picture of a solar disc with eight short rays and the suggestion of a bird flying up and to the left over it.  
  
****  
  
Author's Note: Okay, here's the whole story/deal/whatever. I was half-drowsing on the bus on the way to school (It's an hour's ride from where I live to Durham Tech Com College), and got to thinking vaguely about a fic I had once read and since mostly forgotten that involed the premise that Ranma and Ataru (Ranme and UY, respectively) were switched at birth, and the whole thing had just been realized 'now'. So, Ataru is now engaged to one of the Tendos, and Ranma moves off to Tomobiki. That kinda inspired me to think 'what if... they were switched at birth, for real!' This meaning that Ranma grows up in Tomobik and Ataru goes with Genma on the trip (I figure Happosai would be ecstatic to find such a good student...). Then I started thinking about the Bet (which I came into fanfiction a little to late to watch occurring), and... well... see the above.  
  
Now, for the challenge laid out in simple terms: The idea is to have a fic where either a ranma 1/2 character is "switched at birth" into another series, taking the place of a current character, or vice versa. For example, Ataru in the place of Ranma (as the original inspiration), or Akane in place of Rei from SM (or maybe Ami... that would be... interesting), or something like that. Ideally, it would consist of paired entries (from a single person, or, better yet, two people) that follow each member of the switched pair. (For an example, I'd look at "All Mixed Up," which is a paired fic that switched Gohan and Ranma right before the start of the Ranma canon ('All Mixed Up AG' and 'All Mixed Up VR'). Gohan gets engaged to Akane (sounds like something his father would do), and Ranma gets involved with Videl.)  
  
So, what does everyone think?  
  
Sunhawk, deus_ex_mach42@hotmail.com 


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